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Edison Trent
Background Trent grew up on the planet Leeds in Bretonia under the care of a ship mechanic named Tobias. He helped Tobias out by fixing up other people's ships, but he grew restless and wanted to leave the confines of Leeds and try to make his fortune in the Border Worlds. In particular, the new discoveries of alien ruins and the vast stretches of the Border Worlds that have been uncharted drew him to space. He left in spite of Tobias's warnings. "The Deal of a Lifetime" Over the next two weeks, Trent traveled from the Leeds System to the other end of Sirius, in the Sigma system cluster where there is word of a number of uncharted systems in that area of space. During his journey through the Independent Worlds he was attacked several times by pirates, but as luck would have it police patrols were nearby and saved his life. Once in Sigma, however, things slowed down considerably and after six weeks of searching he could not find out anything about alien ruins or uncharted systems. He did hear about some strange ship sightings in the Sigma-17 System and as it turned out, a Republican Shipping convoy captain who was willing to sell some of his Boron cargo under the table. They agreed to meet on the planet Kurile to finalize the deal. Despite costing all of his savings (not to mention the dubious legality of the transaction), Trent did the deal and became the owner of over a ton of Boron. As luck turned out, he found a man named Lonnigan, a representative of Samura Heavy Industries, who said that his clients might be interested in buying the shipment. They work out the details and decide to meet on Freeport 7 to seal the deal. In exchange for the Boron, Lonnigan will pay Trent one million credits. Everything went well and the deal was signed, but only moments later Freeport 7 was attacked. Trent barely made it out alive, carrying Lonnigan to the life pod after a collapsing bulkhead knocked him unconscious. Although there's no proof, Trent probably saved Lonnigan more out of a concern for the one million credits he now owed him over any altruistic motives. With the destruction of the station, Trent lost his ship and ore, leaving him with only 500 credits that he had on his person. During the three-day trip to Manhattan, Trent generally stayed away from the endless chatter and speculation going on among the other eight survivors and became rather annoyed by the end of the trip. Upon arrival, Trent asked the medics to make sure Lonnigan lived so he could get his million credit payment. Trent was impressed at Manhattan and the sheer size of the city, and decided that since he was going to be staying until Lonnigan got released, he should try to find a job since 500 credits doesn't very long in Manhattan. Jobs in Liberty Securing a Ship In the bar, Trent talks with the bartender who points out Liberty Security Force officer Jun'ko Zane ("Juni") and says that she might have a job. He walks over to Juni and interrupts a conversation she was having with another person. Despite being annoyed, Juni was looking for a freelancer at the time, so she offers him a job with LSF officer Michael King to escort a convoy of food and medical supplies from Fort Bush to Planet Pittsburgh. Trent explains that his ship was lost in the destruction of Freeport 7, so she provides him an old surplus CTE 750AE Starflier - an old ship but better than nothing. Since Lonnigan was still recovering, Trent decided to take the job to earn some money in the meantime. [[Destruction of the RNC Donau]] Shortly after taking off and linking up with King in orbit, Trent notices the Rheinland battleship [[RNC Donau]] which had just arrived over Manhattan. It was carrying Rheinland Admiral Otto Schultzky to a meeting with Liberty President Jacobi when suddenly five fighters from The Order arrived and destroyed the battleship with a torpedo salvo. Trent, King, and the other Liberty military ships in the area fought back and destroyed the enemy fighters. Escort Mission to Pittsburgh King and Trent link up with the DSE transports [[Brandt]] and [[Champion]] at Fort Bush, but en route to the planet they are attacked by a number of Liberty Rogue fighters. Though Trent and King manage to beat off the first wave, giving them enough time to restore the trade lanes and escape to Pittsburgh before additional Rogues arrived. Upon arrival at Pittsburgh, Trent finds out that the entire mission was really an attempt to draw the Rogues out of hiding. Although Trent was somewhat upset at finding out he was being used as bait, he agrees to assist King search for a suspected Rogue base in the Pittsburgh Debris Field. Destruction of the Liberty Rogue Base After taking off from Pittsburgh, King and Trent receive a distress call from the XT-19 Prison Ship. They move to intercept the Rogue fighters and beat them off, though the prison ship was heavily damaged (see "The Rescue of XT-19 Prison Ship" for more information). Following that, the various Liberty patrols break off to search the Pittsburgh Debris Field for a suspected Rogue base. Again, Trent and King receive a distress call, this time from LSF fighter Beta 4, whose wingmates had been destroyed by Rogue forces when they were exploring a nearby particle field. King decides that the Rogue base must be in there, so Trent, King, and other LSF forces attack and ultimately destroy the base. Following this victory, Trent returns to Pittsburgh and King departs. Juni contacts Trent and tells him to explore the area some more, and that she'll contact him if she has another job for him. By this point, Trent's confidence in flying and fighting has begun to increase, particularly following the destruction of the Liberty Rogue Base. However, he is a bit let down becasue King departed without buying him a drink like he promised, and he remains frustrated both because he doesn't have jump gate access and also because he still wants his money back from Lonnigan. First Encounter with Lonnigan When Trent returns to Manhattan to take up another job with Juni (to capture Sean Ashcroft - see below for details), he checks in with Medical to see how Lonnigan is doing (still intending on collecting on the million credits Lonnigan owes him). Nobody at Medical seems to know where he is, though later on as he is preparing to leave on the Ashcroft mission, Lonnigan finds him at the landing pad. When Lonnigan warns that none of them are safe and that the government is going to capture them, Trent dismisses it as simply being paranoid and confused, possibly a holdover from his head injury. However, when the two Liberty Police officers show up and shoot Lonnigan with a tranquilizer and knock Trent unconscious with a stun baton, he starts having his suspicions that there may be some truth to Lonnigan's story. Trent also starts believing that he will never see his million credits and that he is going to be staying in Liberty for longer than he expected. Juni and King wake him up and brush off his confusion about what happened to Lonnigan. Capture of Sean Ashcroft Juni calls Trent and tells him that she has another mission for him to go on. This one is to capture Artifact Smuggler Sean Ashcroft, who is going to be travelling through the Colorado-New York Jump Gate. Juni also offers to give him access codes to all of the Liberty jump gates upon successful completion of the mission. Although Trent is a little bit mystified about President Jacobi's sudden obsession with stopping the Artifact trade, since they are usually just collectables for the rich anyways, he accepts because he needs the money and wants the jump codes. As Trent enters the Colorado system, he is impressed by the LNS Unity that is guarding the Jump Gate and scans ships on the Colorodo side, identifying an artifact smuggler that turned out to be not Sean Ashcroft, but Cosmo Van Nostrom ("a real pain" as Trent described him). Upon receiving word of the failed ambush at Pueblo Station, King and Trent moved to the rescue. Throughout the ensuing battle, Trent is repeatedly impressed by how much support Ashcroft and the artifact smugglers have, particularly with the failed rescue attempt at Fort Bush. He finds out from King that Rheinland discovered a lot of active Alien artifacts about a month ago - something Trent is a bit upset about since they made the "find of the century" that he was looking for. Following the mission, Trent goes off to explore the rest of Liberty space, since he hasn't been there before. Second Encounter with Lonnigan Juni contacts Trent sometime later after she is back from assignment, telling him to meet her on Manhattan. However, on arrival he is confronted by Sam Lonnigan, who this time holds a gun to his head and tries to warn Trent about a government conspiracy to hunt down the Freeport 7 survivors. Trent thought that The Order was behind Freeport 7 and the follow-up, but Lonnigan insists that it is not just them, but involves the Liberty Government. Although Trent recognizes that Lonnigan is now a focused and determined man on the run instead of the confused man he encounetered the last time, he still thinks that Lonnigan is simply paranoid and has lost his mind. After Lonnigan warns Trent to leave Liberty while he still can, he takes off to carry out his escape. The Death of Brandon Rowlett Trent continues to the bar where he finds out that Juni is not there, but left a message with the bartender to meet her on California Minor. Trent is a bit upset about this, thinking that the whole trip to Manhattan was turning into a disaster, and then after taking off into space Juni contacted him explaining that the assignment had something to do with information gained from Sean Ashcroft. He is somewhat intrigued and decides to go to California Minor to see what she has to say. Just after Trent passes through the New York-California Jump Gate, a Rhino freighter pulls up alongside him and a man named Brandon Rowlett contacts him. Rowlett explains that he is a Freeport 7 survivor who met him on the rescue ship (though Trent barely remembers him). Rowlett explains that since other Freeport 7 survivors have been disappearing, he wants to meet with Trent on Los Angeles. However, before Trent has a chance to respond to the offer, three Liberty Navy heavy fighters come out of the trade lane and tell Rowlett to surrender and stand down. Rowlett tries to make a run for it and is destroyed by the fighters. As the Navy fighters leave, they warn Trent to keep this quiet because it's a classified naval operation. Although Trent is rather shocked by the death of Rowlett, he decides to keep it a secret because he doesn't want to end up dead like Rowlett. Flushing Out a Traitor Upon arrival at California Minor, Trent despairs about the poor surrdoundings, particularly the bar, but Juni tells him about Sean Ashcroft talking and how she needs him to help flush out a traitor that might be working in the Liberty Navy or LSF. Trent agrees, though during the conversation the news announces that Orillion, leader of The Order, had been shot and killed - only to reveal that Orillian is Sam Lonnigan. Trent is surprised, and Juni surmises that he was conducting recon prior to the attack, though Trent dismisses this based on his knowledge and interactions with Lonnigan. Juni doesn't listen and says that they need to continue with the mission. Trent goes along with the mission, but he starts to think Lonnigan's ramblings might have some grounding in reality. He reasons that as long as he keeps working with the LSF, he should stay safe. During the mission, the convoy is attacked by a group of eight Outcast fighters at an abandoned supply depot in the Barrera Passage. Though Juni, Trent, and LSF Gamma Wing manage to fight them off, Trent remarks about how "these artifact smugglers seem to have a sheer endless supply of ships - we must have fought off 20 or more fighters in the passage." After Juni discovers that her CO has been arrested for treason and her friends at LSF HQ have disappeared, Trent and her go back to California Minor. On the way, they encounter three Rheinland Valkrye fighters that decloak in front of them. Though Trent and Juni fight them off, they both wonder what Rheinlanders are doing in the middle of Liberty space. Marcus Walker and the Attack on Willard Research Station Trent meets Juni and Captain Marcus Walker on California Minor. Walker agrees to help them hunt down artifact smugglers in California, and offers Trent a job working full time for the Liberty Navy, saying it's a good cause. Trent declines, claiming that "causes come and go, I'd rather keep freelancing if it's all the same with you" - besides his thoughts about stiff military officers, he knows that if he settles down with a job like that, his dreams of a life filled with adventure and discovery are over. They rendevouz in space and receive a distress call from Willard Research Station. The entire attack group along with Trent and Juni come to the rescue, destroying the Rheinlanders though not before they inflicted heavy damage on the LNS Harmony and the station itself. Trent remarks that this battle was probably the biggest one since the 80 Years War. With Juni and Walker trying to sort out what is going on, Juni asks Trent to take on a few jobs and keep his head down until she figures out more. Trivia *Trent likes drinking Sidewinder Fangs. He is quite disappointed when the bar in Manhattan only has Liberty Ale and swears that it'll be "definitely the only one I'll ever drink."